A new
plastics recycling project has been backed with EUR 10 million by the European
Commission’s research and innovation programme Horizon2020. Dutch plastics
specialist Ioniqa Technologies and the Technical University of Eindhoven are
among 22 research/academic institutions, governmental organisations, and
industries and SMEs involved in the initiative.

Called
Polynspire, the four-year research programme was recently kicked off in
Brussels and aims to improve the energy and resource efficiency of recycling
processes for post-consumer and post-industrial waste streams containing at
least 80% of plastic materials.

New PET recycling plant

As
well as being one of the partners, Ioniqa has started work on a new recycling
plant. It is being built in the Dutch city of Geleen and is described as the
company’s ‘first up-cycling
plant’.

‘As of summer 2019, PET plastic waste will be
converted into high-grade, pure PET raw material, from which new food packaging
will be made,’ says company ceo Tonnis Hooghoudt. The output will be 10 000 tonnes a year.

He adds: ‘Since 2011, we have been developing in our
R&D labs in Eindhoven this circular technology to upcycle all types of coloured
PET plastic wastes and textiles. Over the past two years we have carried out
tests at our demonstration plant at the Port of Rotterdam to prove our process
for the production of raw material for food packaging. This was an important
step and validates Ioniqa’s circular solution for all stakeholders in the
market.’

Big
things to follow

Hooghoudt believes the first
Ioniqa plant will be followed by ‘many more’. He acknowledges that a plant with
a capacity of 10 000 tonnes per year is relatively small compared to market
demand.

‘New plants scaling-up to 100
000 or 200 000 tonnes will certainly follow. That is something for large
internationally operating parties to take on, though,’ Hooghoudt says. ‘We will
focus on licensing our technology globally and this will also ensure that it is
implemented faster.’

Would you like to share any interesting developments or article ideas with us? Don't hesitate to contact us.